Problems With Two Savage Model 40's

[tenwalker]

My Prairie Dog shooting partner needed a new 22 Hornet so he ordered a new Model 40, because the two I have had shot so great. The first one he tried shot terrible, it was all over the target. Well he happens to own a bore scope so he took a peek down the pipe. Well what he saw was what he described as chatter mark's in the bore. that seem to be from when they rifled the barrel. So he returned it and ordered another one. Well this one came with the same chatter marks and shot as poorly as the first one. Plus this one would only extract about everyother casing. So this one went back and he cured the problem by buying a CZ in 22 Hornet. Has anyone else experienced these problems with the Model 40. I know my first one had extraction problems but Savage fixed it for me. And the second one I bought had no problems and shoots great. :o

[Slowpoke Slim]

I don't have one, but my shooting buddy does. His shoots great. He's seating his bullets long, way over book length and using 12.5 grs of Lil-Gun, with a Rem 6 1/2 primer and a 40 gr vmax. I know that's his load, because that's the load I shoot in my Contender handgun, and I handed him some to try in his 40, and they shot awesome. So he's just been duplicating my recipe.

However, the last time he had it out, he had a case head separation. I don't think he has more than 2 loadings on his brass. I have way more than that on my hornet brass in my Contender, more like 6 or 7 loadings. I've trimmed my brass twice. Upon looking at his fired brass, the rest of it looks ready to separate too. Also his chamber is pretty large, the area ahead of the web is obviously enlarged. He has only been FL sizing his brass, which I think is what's causing the separations, over working the brass. He's going to order a neck sizing die for it, which I'm sure will help. I was just surprised to see his brass swell up so much as compared to mine.

And yes, he's going to pitch the rest of his fired brass and start over with a new bag.

[tenwalker]

We use 13grs. "LIL GUN" a 6 1/2 Rem. Primer Winchester brass and a 35 gr. V-Max and neck resize only. We have never had case problems and we have upwards of 9-10 reloadings on some of our brass. We also trim when necessary.